Pablo Mastroeni will be ready for the Fire.
He limped off with an ankle injury in the second half of last Friday’s match at Chivas USA. On Tuesday he said he was raring to go for the home opener Saturday against Chicago.
Mastroeni mentioned how encouraged he was by the victory last weekend, not least considering how little he and new signing Jeff Larentowicz had actually played together before the game.
“It was a really interesting dynamic – we had only played small-sided games during the preseason,” he said. “I was happily surprised by how organized we were.”
His and Larentowicz’s job was mainly to get the ball to the player with pace like Colin Clark and last Friday’s goal scorer, Omar Cummings. However, every now and then you will also see them join the attack.
Injury Update:Apart from Mastroeni, whose injury was suffered by the same ankle on which had had surgery during the preseason, other players are also nursing knocks. The only real doubt for Saturday, other than long-term absentees such as Ross Schunk, is wide midfielder, Jamie Smith.
The Scotsman, who is rehabbing a hamstring pull, was training lightly on the side on Tuesday. Frenchman and vocal leader, Julien Baudet, who sat out the Chivas USA game on the bench, pronounced himself fit and looks set to play a part against Chicago. Conor Casey sat out Tuesday’s session in order to rehab in the locker room.
One other notable absentee from training on Tuesday was new boy Marvell Wynne. Wynne, who signed from Toronto only last week and had an outstanding game on Friday, has flown back to Canada to get organized after the flurry of activity which saw him head down to California last week and straight into the team.
Wynne is expected to be back in training Thursday with the team after a day off for the squad on Wednesday.
TV News: The Rapids recently signed a new contract with Fox affiliate KWGN Channel 2, aka The Deuce. The channel, which will be covering nearly all the Rapids games this season, debuted coverage with the Chivas USA game.
Despite some glitches (missing start of second half and leaving out the game clock and score for a long stretch), the broadcast was a major step-up on the previous coverage offered by local cable station Altitude, owned by Rapids’ owner Stan Kroenke.
Both Fox and Channel 2 are planning weekly coverage of the team. In a local market where sports are dominated by the Broncos, the Nuggets, the Rockies and the Avalanche, this is great news indeed for the soccer-obsessed among us.
